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USA Badminton, the sport’s national governing body, secretly paid $1 million to settle a dispute with a former employee who says he was terminated in retaliation for reporting allegations of sexual abuse by a prominent coach, according to a confidential agreement obtained by ESPN and ABC News.
Alistair Casey, who previously served as the federation’s chief of staff and SafeSport compliance officer, has alleged that in 2021 USA Badminton’s CEO Linda French and its general counsel Jon Little pressured him not to report recently resurfaced older allegations of sexual abuse to the U.S. Center for SafeSport, the Olympic movement’s sexual misconduct watchdog. When he filed a report anyway, Casey alleged that he was harassed and ultimately fired.
The terms of the settlement are “strictly confidential,” but ESPN and ABC News obtained a copy of the agreement bearing the signatures — dated Jan. 4 and 5, 2023 — of Casey, French and Kenneth Wong, who until recently served as the chairman of USA Badminton’s board of directors.
The federation has been engulfed in a series of disputes and inquiries since Casey’s allegations spilled into public view in 2021. According to the agreement, the settlement “does not constitute an admission of liability.” It was reached “solely for the purpose of resolving any and all controversies and disputes.”
In response to questions from ESPN and ABC News, Casey declined to comment. Ryan Saba, an attorney for Casey, issued a brief statement that mirrored language dictated by confidentiality provisions in the settlement.
“This matter has been resolved,” Saba said. “The settlement is confidential.”
USA Badminton officials and the lawyer who represented them in the settlement did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The nature of the abuse allegations themselves remain unclear. In 2021, they were ultimately reported to police in Orange, California, who confirmed that officers investigated the claims but did not request any criminal charges, and to SafeSport, which, according to the Los Angeles Times, “administratively closed” its case pending any new information.
According to sources familiar with the matter, however, SafeSport’s investigation of Casey’s allegations that USA Badminton and its leadership retaliated against him for bringing the matter to SafeSport is ongoing. When asked about the status of the case, SafeSport spokesperson Dan Hill said the organization “does not comment on matters to protect the integrity of its investigative process” but added that any officials who interfere with reports to SafeSport are impeding the progress being made to end abuse in sports.
“Not reporting, or interfering with a report, is more than just a SafeSport violation; it runs counter to best practices in preventing abuse, particularly that of children,” Hill told ESPN and ABC News. “The Center takes efforts to interfere with the well-being and safety of athletes seriously and will continue to hold those individuals accountable.”
A federal law passed in 2020, designed to make SafeSport the centerpiece of the U.S. Olympic movement’s response to the athlete abuse crisis, requires any employees of a national governing body to immediately report suspicions of abuse to law enforcement and to SafeSport.
As ESPN and ABC News previously reported, USA Badminton general counsel Little, an outspoken critic of SafeSport, advised his colleagues at the federation in September 2021 that “the policy of USA Badminton should be” to report any allegations of abuse to local law enforcement and then ask them for their “blessing” before reporting them to SafeSport, a possible violation of that law.
“I have seen SafeSport intentionally ruin at least one criminal case and compromise another case,” Little wrote in an email obtained by ESPN and ABC News. “I do not think we should be reporting to them without the blessing of law enforcement.”
Concerns about the proposed federation policy were reported to Congress and to SafeSport, sparking a congressional inquiry into “potential criminal violations.” In the confidential settlement agreement, Casey “acknowledges in the past he transmitted certain data to the USOPC, SafeSport, Congress and the Police.”
In a letter sent to USA Badminton officials in October 2021, Sen. Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he was “troubled” by the allegations and had alerted the FBI. Grassley’s office did not respond to multiple requests for an update on Congress’ interest in the matter.
Little did not respond to questions from ESPN and ABC News. When asked about the proposed policy last year, Little said it had already been put into “practice” and expressed hopes to codify it when USA Badminton next revised its bylaws. It’s unclear whether the federation has since adopted it.
Dan Murphy is an investigative reporter at ESPN, and Pete Madden is an investigative producer for ABC. Reach them at daniel.murphy@espn.com and pete.a.madden@abc.com.